After seeing Bryan Dubois take 5th Place at an SCG IQ last year, I had considered tinkering with a modern Sliver deck build. Recently, I saw an article somewhere that featured a modern Sliver deck tech, rekindling my interesting in working on a build. Here's what I've got so far.
Lands:
Cavern of Souls - Since this is a 5 color deck, access to all five colors for creatures becomes paramount, additionally, the ability to make those creatures unable to be countered is a bonus.
Sliver Hive - More 5 color access, but for only slivers. Additionally, this becomes an excellent resource in the late game for making tokens or recovering from a board wipe.
Mutavault - Look, it's a land, no it's a creature, wait no, it's both. Mutavault serves as an extra beater, an attacker post board wipe, and since it is all creature types, it benefits from being a sliver.
Verdant Catacombs - A fetch land that grabs swamps and forests, ideal for getting that necessary green source for a Manaweft Sliver or for that Collected Company, and the black source is an enabler for
Sedge Sliver
.
Overgrown Tomb - See above.
Watery Grave - A Blue and Black source for things like Diffusion Sliver or Galerider Sliver, and the black source enables
Sedge Sliver
.
Godless Shrine - A White and Black source for
Sentinel Sliver
, Necrotic Sliver, and the black source also enables
Sedge Sliver
.
Forest - Basic land is basic.
Swamp - Basic land is basic.
Creatures:
Manaweft Sliver - Turns all of my slivers into Birds of Paradise. Mana for explosive turns, like dumping my entire hand on turn 3 or 4; or allowing all of my creatures to regenerate themselves with
Sedge Sliver
's ability.
Galerider Sliver - The Storm Crow of the sliver world. Gives all of my slivers flying, making my creatures an aerial army.
Predatory Sliver - Beefs up my slivers, making them bigger.
Sinew Sliver - Another sliver lord that makes my slivers bigger.
Sedge Sliver
- Yet another sliver lord that also gives my sliver the ability to regenerate, making them so much harder to kill.
Diffusion Sliver - Makes my slivers harder to remove, as each targeting spell and ability costs and additional 2 mana. One makes removal spells more expensive, two makes them almost worthless, three means that you just concede the game typically.
Sentinel Sliver
- Vigilance, allowing my hive to attack, and then tap for mana, tokens, regeneration, etc, etc.
Darkheart Sliver
- Negates burn damage or let's me cash in a sliver that was going to bite the dust anyway, giving it more value. Also gives me breathing room to survive long enough to finish my opponent off.
Spellskite - Not a sliver, but in its heart, it is a sliver, it just doesn't know it yet. A great way to redirect removal spells affecting my hive.
Blur Sliver
- Makes slivers faster. By giving all of my slivers haste, they can attack or tap for mana, or do whatever they do on the turn they hit the board.
Necrotic Sliver - Sliver Vindicate, giving all slivers the vindicate ability. Say goodbye to everything, including lands.
Others:
Aether Vial - Another way to get slivers onto the battlefield at instant speed, or to play around counterspells, or to trick/bluff my opponents into an unfavorable trade.
Collected Company - With all slivers sitting at between 1 and 3 CMC, I can look at 6 cards, and chose the best two slivers for the current match up.
SideBoard:
While all sideboard tech is really very meta dependent, with slivers, you will find that most of these cards work well in a variety of metas, with only a small number of flex spots for your unique meta.
Cautery Sliver
- A sliver burn spell to get in those final points of damage or a way to negate damage. This card is flexible in its function, however, it is a flexible slot and could be swapped out for something else.
Frenetic Sliver
- Board wipes are the biggest pain in the a** for sliver decks. While we have additional tech for dealing with boardwipes, this just gives us more options. While it is a coin flip to determine if you save the sliver, it was going to die one way or another, so this just gives you a chance to save it. Even if you only manage to save 30% of your board on a wipe, that's 30% more than you were going to have before running this little gem.
Harmonic Sliver - Having played Affinity extensively, I know how troublesome artifacts can be. This says "hell no" to aritfacts and enchantments. True, it can blow up your Aether Vial if there are no other targets, but against a deck like Affinity, you'll always have plenty of targets.
Homing Sliver - A sliver that fetches other slivers, and gives other slivers the ability to fetch slivers. With this bit of tech, you can fetch of your sliver silver bullet kill or finisher.
Leeching Sliver
- In creature based fair match ups, this sliver can help close out games a little bit faster. Although while it is decent, this spot is flexible and could be better served with another Homing Sliver if needed to get the sliver you need for the situation you are in.
Relic of Progenitus - Dredge decks are really, and they are a real pain in the a**. This comes down turn 1 and can shut them down. I'm currently testing this, but it could be replaced with a Rest in Peace or a Grafdigger's Cage, all three serve the same purpose.
Sliver Hivelord
- With this, board wipes don't mean squat. You can block for days, dodge removal (except exile) for days, and board wipes become the least of your problems.
Spellskite - Shuts down infect decks, redirects direct damage, all around utility against targetted removal.
Syphon Sliver
- Hoses RDW and burn style decks. Lifelink makes winning for them so much harder.
Telekinetic Sliver
- Combo decks that require things to tap, big beaters, or hell even tapping their lands, until you can get in for the kill, this sliver does it all.
Warping Wail - More tech for board wipes, since all functional board wipes are sorceries, this can shut them down easily, and with Cavern of Souls and Sliver Hive, casting this with waste mana is easy. Works wonders against small creatures that can be come annoying quickly such as Delver of Secrets
.
